5 Basic Grilling Skills Every Beginner Needs to Master

As you begin your own path from beginner to expert griller, our grilling classes can teach you how to avoid the most common grilling mistakes and help give you a jump start. Here at Weber Grill Restaurant, we offer cooking classes for any outdoor griller, whether on charcoal or gas.

No matter where you live in America, our grilling culture is strong and growing. In fact, 5.5% of Americans report grilling more than once every week! And as more and more people enter the delicious and smoky world of grilling, becoming an expert on the grill gets even harder. That’s right, even the most primitive of cooking methods, that of grilling over a live fire, requires you to master some basic skills in order to tame that flame and become the hero of your own backyard. Whether it is gas or charcoal, these 5 grilling tips from our chefs at Weber Grill Restaurant will set you on the path of grilling excellence.

Determining the Heat

In order to get a beautiful sear and a tender interior while you’re grilling steaks, you need to know how to read the temperature of the grill. To judge without a temperature gauge, use a hand count method. If you can hold your hand an inch from the grill for two seconds, the fire is at a high heat (450-550F). Four seconds indicates medium heat (350-450F), and six seconds indicates low heat (350-350F).

Choosing Your Meat

When you’re grilling meat, choose chops and steaks that are between one and two inches thick and have a well-marbled structure. Trimming off excess outside fat to a quarter inch thickness will help avoid flare-ups.

Know when to cook over Direct Heat or Indirect Heat

Cooking over direct, high heat (450-550F) is great for items that take 20 minutes or less to cook. The item is cooked directly above the coals or gas burners the entire time. This is great for everything from burgers, steaks, chops and even cedar planked fish. Cooking with Indirect is usually done with medium heat (350 -450F). For this kind of cooking, the food is away from the coals or gas burner, with the lid closed. This allows the convective heat to cook the foods indirectly, like in your oven. This cooking method is great for items that take longer than 20 minutes to cook, like roasts, baked potatoes, and even that backyard favorite, beer can chicken.

Opening the Grill

The more you open your grill, the longer it will take to cook. The grill can lose as much as 75-50F every time the lid is opened. Covered cooking is the best practice because it uses convective and direct heat to cook the food faster and more evenly. As we like to say, “If you’re looking, you’re not cooking!”

Knowing When the Food is Done

The amount of time it takes to grill any meat can vary wildly. The key? Use both a timer and an instant read thermometer to tell when your food is done cooking. Check out the Weber® iGrill Bluetooth® thermometers for the most efficient and convenient way to grill perfectly cooked meat, every time. Also, we provide helpful booklets in our grilling classes that include charts with the cooking times and temperatures for all meat, poultry and seafood.

Our classes are tailored to provide grilling expertise for any skill level, from beginner to expert. If you want to learn grilling tricks from the pros, this is the place to be. And why not grab a drink while you’re at it? We specialize in hospitality at our restaurants and offer a full beverage service throughout the class. Just bring yourself and a desire to learn how to make great, flame-kissed food on the grill. Summer is here and there’s no time quite like the present. Sign up for your grill class today at your local Weber Grill Restaurant, and get grilling!

Book your spot in one of our hands-on grilling classes – https://www.webergrillrestaurant.com/special-events-grilling-classes/